Jones, J Guided Lab - Floods

GUIDED LAB - FLOODS To receive credit for this guided lab, please type your answers in this document and upload your completed document to the I-Learn assignment. There are boxes for you to include your answers. LEARNING TARGETS At the end of this guided lab, you will be able to  Evaluate the cost of a flood.  Determine where floods are currently occurring.  Evaluate flood hazards at a particular location.  Determine PART I. FLOOD DISASTER FREQUENCY 1. What percent of all Federal Emergencies do you think are floods (just make a guess)? The map below shows how FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Administration) divides the United States into disaster regions. FEMA compiles data for each FEMA region to and makes it available at https://www.fema.gov/disasters . We are going to look at the total number of disasters and the total number of flood disasters in one state in each region. 60%

2. Go to https://www.fema.gov/data-visualization-disaster-declarations-states- and-counties and a. b. c. You can see how many flood disasters have occurred since 1953 . 3. Use the FEMA Website to complete the following table. State Number of Disasters that have Occurred since 1953. Number of flood Disasters that have occurred since 1953. Percent of the disasters that were floods. Maine 68 16 23.5% New York 111 25 22.5% Virginia 73 16 21.9% Florida 177 14 9.6% Michigan 43 12 27.9% Texas 372 40 10.7% Kansas 84 13 15.4% Utah 51 9 17.6% California 370 40 10.8% Idaho 54 17 31.4% TOTAL 1,363 202 14.8% PART II. FLOOD INSURANCE Most homeowner’s insurance policies do not cover flood insurance. Instead, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) administers flood insurance through a federal program – the insurance is bought separate from the regular policy. Nationwide Insurance provides some flood tools that can help you determine how much flood damage would cost. This is a commercial website that will ask you if you would like a quote. You do not need to put in your information or request a quote to complete this lab. FLOOD LOSSES One thing that can surprise a lot of homeowners is the cost to repair flood damages. 1. Go to the following website: https://www.floodsmart.gov/cost-flooding 2. How much would it cost a 2500 sq. ft. homeowner if flood waters 1 inch deep entered a home? $26,807

5. What is the flood risk level at the address you chose? PART III. WHERE ARE FLOOD DISASTERS OCCURRING? NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) has a website that gives quick access to information about current flooding in the continental United States. To access this information go to this website the NOAA Advanced Hydrographic Prediction System at http://water.weather.gov/ahps/ If this link doesn’t work, search the internet for “NOAA AHPS water.” 1. Click on the link above and you should see a map that looks like this Low to medium due to some regulatory floodways nearby but not

Each colored square on the map represents a river gauging station. A gauging station measures and records river discharge and stage. 2. What is river discharge ? 3. What is river stage ? On this webpage use the key beside the map on this new page to answer these questions: 4. What is today’s date? 5. How many gauges indicate major flooding? 6. How many gauges indicate moderate flooding? 7. How many gauges indicate minor flooding? PART IV. CASE STUDY – FARGO, NORTH DAKOTA You have been offered a job in Fargo -- the largest city in North Dakota (population ~90,000)! You are pretty excited, because you know that North Dakota is far from The volume of water flowing past a given point in the stream in a given period of time. The height of the water in the stream above a reference point. November 7, 2023 3 gauges 0 gauges 4 gauges

8. What units is the river stage given in? 9. What is flood stage for the Red River at this gauging station? 10.The x-axis represents days of the week. What is today’s date? 11.What is the stage of the Red River in Fargo, ND today? 12.Is the river above flood stage? 13.Is the stage of the river rising, falling, or remaining steady over the time shown on the graph? 14.Scroll down the screen. Below the maps you will see “Flood Impacts.” What impacts are there when the Red River reaches a stage of 28 feet? Feet 18ft Tuesday, November 7, 2023. 14.45ft No It is remaining steady but beginning to fall.

The uncle of one of your friends says that he heard that the level of flooding in 2010 in Fargo is rare. It usually just floods a little. You will evaluate the graph below which contains data from a USGS gauging station on the Red River at Fargo to determine if he is right. Yearly maximum stage of the Red River at Fargo, ND from 1882 to 2010 (data from http://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov , gauging station number 05054000.) Draw a horizontal line on the graph that shows the flood stage of the Red River. Then use the graph to answer the questions. 15.How many times has the Red River exceeded flood stage since 1882? 16.How many times has the Red River exceeded major flood stage since 1882? 17.What can you tell your friend’s uncle about the frequency of floods in Fargo, ND? PART V. 100-YEAR FLOODS 1. What is a 100 year flood? Rivershore Drive underpass at I-94 is closed. 12 th Avenue N/15 th Avenue N bridge over Red River is closed. Around 43 times. Around 15 times. Flooding in recent years especially has grown significantly in Fargo, ND. Since around 1960, the town has hit at least minor flooding around 30 times. This would make his assumption wrong that Fargo rarely floods.